Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Altered body; altered mind

Psychologists
have said that parallel thinking is perhaps the most lasting therapy for
survivors of abuse. What this means is that, in order to overcome the trauma of
abuse and look at one’s self in a new light, it is best to reconstruct one’s
identity, change the way one looks and behaves, indeed, change the ideas in the
mind and get into a brand new body of thoughts which finally affect the person,
inwardly, and outwardly. Thus, the guilt and shame carried in the mind of the
abused, which were in any case, the burden carried forward from the mind of the
abuser, is laid to rest in the back burner. And the survivor of abuse lives
happily ever after.

Or
so it seems.

In
another instance, especially in India, one can see hoards of men and women who
leave their homes to join a spiritual path, leaving behind their families,
cities, village or whatever, to start a life of penance with the hope of
ultimate salvation and breaking the cycle of birth and death. The mendicant
leaves behind and never revisits his/her home, village, or even talks about the
past. Ask a sadhu, about the past, the answer is met with silence.

Here
is another instance of putting aside an ‘inheritance’
by birth, to alter the past and accept a new mind and body, shaven of hair and
over indulgence of the body, by care, to focus on altering the mind with severe
and austere spiritual practice. Whether the goal is met, is only known to the
person itself, but having once spoken to a Naga sadhu long ago, it seems it is.

“Where do you come from? Where are your parents?” I had asked, green behind my
ear, for I learned later that, that is not a question one ever asks a sadhu.

“I am from a village in Bengal,” he volunteered kindly, ‘but, neither I
remember my parents and they too may have forgotten me, for it was so long ago,
when I was a boy, I ran away from home.’

His
altered body, with jata, his scanty
clothing exposing a chocolate dark athletic body, tanned by the sun, was not
the body he had earlier I am sure. But, I do remember, wondering about his
obsession with the chillum he smoked
almost at half an hour to forty five minutes causing me to believe, that it
served two purposes, one, to forget his past, or manage the guilt, if any, for
suddenly disappearing from home, and of course, as a Shiva bhakth, a life lived in imitation in pursuance of his goal, single
minded concentration and focus, which is the end of all spiritual practice.

In my recent conversation with renowned film director Rituparno Ghosh (see Atelier India, March 2013 issue),
talking of his latest film, Chitrangada
he believes that the alteration of the body, is a constant, otherwise, Beauty
Parlours would not exist.

“We are all working toward sculpting our own gender identity; women alter their
bodies at Beauty Parlours, men get six packs. No transformation is actually
over, it is a process; it is fluid.”

The question therefore is: does an altered body, mean an altered mind? Does the
external change of the body induce an inward change of the mind? Can one really
change one’s identity and settle for a new, or induce one to become a reality, so
that one can believe that this new identity is the new self? Going back to what
psychologists say, parallel therapy has met with success, is it possible to be
and live an altered self?

The
recent release of the book by Dr Kanchana Natarajan, (see http://juliadutta.blogspot.in/2013/03/book-release-transgressing-boundaries.html
) brings to light, for the first time in English, the life of a woman saint, in
17th Century, Tamil Nadu, India, the fact that it is possible to
leave one’s painful, Brahminical widowhood, to pursue the path of salvation.
Would she ever face the same question I am posing today, does an altered body
make for an altered mind?

Does
not the past lie in waiting, in the subconscious mind, waiting to raise its
head at any given moment? If not, then why the tautness of the body, which
speaks for itself, hiding its struggle to release itself from the demons of the
past?

Would
sitting silently, doing nothing, but allowing the thoughts to rise and pass,
developing the habit of not holding on to those thoughts, or allowing them to
take hold of one’s mind, not silence the thoughts in time, thus, not having to
alter bodies, but remaining in the same? Does the mind hold the body or is it
vice versa, or both? Is effort really necessary?

Even
sitting silently, doing nothing is an effort. But, submitting, resigning to acceptance
is not.

What is the answer then? What is the real face of truth – an altered body
results in an altered mind? Or an altered state of mind causes the
nullification of the body? And everything attached to it, good and bad
experiences?